Dr Vino's wine blog

Try on this shelf-talker: “Just think of a scene in a movie where the lead actress, obviously one of the greats, turns around slowly and walks away from the camera taking your entire attention with her.” A Chambertin? A ’47 Cheval Blanc?

Actually, it’s for a cheese. The Times ran a piece last week on cheesemongers and their descriptors. Their often serve up one part metaphor, one part tasting note and often are funny without being overdone. Cheese sales has an advantage over wine sales since a cheesemonger can use the shelf-talker to provoke interest and the consumer has the chance to sample, immediately reconciling his or her palate with the description.

Wine tasting notes have evolved from metaphor to the explosion of aroma wheel fruit descriptors and beyond. Of course, the culmination of wine shelf-talkers is point scores, a fate we would not wish befall cheesemongers. That would be stinkier than a ripe epoisses.

Writing good tasting notes is hard to do. What do you think of cheese descriptors–accurate? Annoying? Enticing?

A wine club whose profits benefit the NRA has triggered outrage: Yalumba of South Australia has requested their wines removed from the club’s wine shop.

“Philosophically, I’m not disposed towards the NRA, which runs counter to my family’s, and I would think all my employees’, positions on gun laws,” CEO Robert Hill Smith was quoted in Australia’s Herald Sun. He is taking steps to remove the four Yalumba wines offered on the site. This incident underscores the mediated nature of sales in the wine industry where a winery may not even fully realize the final points of sale of their wines.

Profits from the wine club benefit the NRA. In a signed welcome letter, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre writes, “Your purchase will directly benefit the NRA’s continuing support of America’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms and the other basic freedoms of the American Culture.”

The wine club is run by Vinesse, which operates several wine clubs. This club raises several questions: which types of organizations should (or should not) profit from the sale of wine/alcohol? Do other wineries know that their wines are among the 476 offered on the site and will they follow Yalumba’s lead and seek to have them removed? A smattering of selections follows after the jump: Read more…

Trader Joe’s is raising the price of Two Buck Chuck from $1.99 to $2.49, citing higher costs. Introduced in 2002, it’s kind of hard to believe they hadn’t raised the price already. Oh, and people are already throwing around “upchuck” as a new nickname after the price increase–or, wait, was that a tasting note?

Good thing I loaded up on Charles Shaw while it was still $2–my wine collection has now appreciated by 25%! Mmm, aged Charles Shaw…

Oh, and it’s been about $2.99 in NYC for a while.

SPIT: The NRA has a wine club?! Ack. I’m sure all the wines will be high caliber…

SPIT: Rudy Kurniawan‘s attempt to have the DOJ’s evidence against his alleged wine counterfeiting was disallowed by the judge. Now the defendant must prepare to stand trial or change his not guilty plea.

SPIT: Orange wines, the skin-fermented wines once hot among hipsters, get crushed by sommelier Richard Betts who argues succinctly, “Tecate > orange wines.” Other sommeliers pile on.

SIPPED: Arnot-Roberts, specifically, Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Robert, get deserved recognition as the California’s winemakers of the year by the SF Chronicle.

GLUGGED: Guy Fieri, whose Times Square restaurant was the subject of a negative review in the NYT, is buying a small vineyard in Sonoma. Will the wine be called Donkey Sauce?

ADVISED: The Hosemaster reports from the fictitious Lodi Professional Wine Writers’ Symposium where one panel advises: “You catch more flies with honey than with Authentic Wine.”

With all the uproar over Korbel “champagne” being poured at Monday’s inauguration, it’s time to wonder aloud whether sparkling wine from California needs a term of its own. Other French bubblies are known as crémant, Spain has cava, Germany has Sekt, even England has Britagne.

“Sparkling wine” is incredibly anodyne as a term. Given all the marketing geniuses that we have in this country, you’d think we could come up with a name of our own. Maybe French it up with a term like “California Crémant”? Or go with the American love of acronyms and pour some CSW? (California sparkling wine)

What do you say?

Usually, mega wineries are supposed to harvest economies of scale as well as grapes. But Casella, the maker of Yellow Tail, is trapped between a strong currency and a hard price point, which has led to their balance sheet spilling red ink.

A WSJ story squarely blames the $31 million shortfall on the strong Australian dollar and competition in the American marketplace. “There is no volume issue, it is all about the exchange rate,” CEO John Casella said. Failure to secure a new loan by January 30 could lead to asset sales.

A Bloomberg story recently reported that bulk exports shipped in giant plastic bladders overtook the volume of bottled wine exported from Australia. While this offers cost savings, it also reduces wine’s carbon footprint.

The strong currency does provide a significant obstacle to Australian estate wines becoming the Next Big Thing.

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Thanks, Jennie!

Here’s a wine that I enjoyed over the holidaze: Rippon, “mature vines,” pinot noir, 2008 from Central Otago(find this wine). It’s worth mentioning first and foremost because it is a tasty, succulent pinot, surprisingly, not an in-your-face fruity pinot. Instead, it’s got an alluring earthiness and minerality, a snap of acidity, all infused with gentle red fruits and a bit of savory spice. With a moderate alcohol (13% on the label), it’s a winner from Middle Earth.

The other thing worth flagging about the wine is the term “mature vines.” The vines, planted in 1986 – 1994 on the shores of Lake Wanaka, are among the oldest remaining on the estate. While “old vines” sometimes appears on labels, it is completely unregulated and seems both arbitrary and pretentious as well as occasionally misleading (one person’s “old” may be someone else’s young.) While “mature vines” is still somewhat arbitrary, it’s at least accurate and, imho, not pretentious.

A rarity for New Zealand–it’s closed with a cork, granted a “taint-free cork” (aka Diam).